A tearful beginning
by Horntail hunter
Summary: A chance encounter atop the Astronomy tower leads to shared comfort and possible friendship. Reference to past violence, set during Harry's second year.


Author's note:  
Hello all, this is my first attempt at Fanfiction, I've been reading it for years and thought I'd give it a go. Hope it is enjoyed and any feedback that isn't too harsh is appreciated.

I own nothing to do with Harry Potter

* * *

It was hard to get away from everyone in a castle as big as Hogwarts, Harry knew, as not only had he been trying for nearly the entire day, but most of the current year so far, as well as a large amount of the last, with few successes. This fact became less important as he realised the identity of the person already sitting at the top of the astronomy tower, and became almost insignificant when he saw the tears running down their face. Usually if Harry were to come across this scene, he would slowly back away praying not to be noticed, close the door to the tower behind him and continue looking for a place of his own. However, the person sitting in front of him was one of only two people in the school he would stop to comfort the moment he saw them in such a state, and a state is surely was. The Witch Harry had stumbled upon happened to be one of very few people that he became immediately curious about the first time he saw her, and the only one that had led him to a vast amount of information he would never have thought to find by himself. She also appeared to be in a state that would never be associated with her regular demeanor, which once again peaked his curiosity. No one would believe that Daphne Greengrass had spent an evening crying atop the astronomy tower.

FLASHBACK

Christmas was exceedingly quiet during Harry's first year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and he would not have had it any other way. With the Weasleys deciding to spend the holiday at home, there was no Ron around to constantly ask him to play wizard's chess, talk about Quidditch for hours on end or call anyone mental the moment a book was mentioned. With Hermione also leaving the castle, there was no one to demand he spend every second of his living life either checking homework he had already finished, reading his assigned textbook for the twelfth time or studying ahead for end of year exams, maybe she was a tiny bit mental, as Ron kept saying. Finally, with nearly the entire student body gone for three weeks, there was no one watching his every move, waiting to either cheer at the slightest accomplishments or mock him for the slightest of failures. All in all, it was one of the most peaceful times in Harry's life, with many trips to the Library reading what he wanted to at whatever pace he decided upon, much more time to relax than he knew what to do with, resulting in more trips to the Library and better food than he could ever imagine getting from his relatives.

The Christmas break got far more interesting for Harry one night at dinner. With such a small number of students around, Harry had taken to people watching whenever he was in the Great Hall and today his gaze wondered to the Slytherin table, after following a head of straight black hair from the doors to the hall. As his evening's puzzle sat down to their dinner, Harry recognised the student as one he had seen before, a first year like him, reasonably tall for an eleven year old girl, thin - no, slender was a better word. Greengrass, Daphne, he recalled thinking back to the sorting, the name just after Hermione. Harry knew his attention would now stay on her, not just because his eyes had been wondering past the door as she walked in, or because he could match a name to her face, although that was more than he could say for most of the students in the hall. No, the most interesting thing he saw was the way she walked in to the hall, and the way she was currently eating the food in front of her. It was like all of her movements were completely deliberate, calculated as the most efficient way to move from A to B, never moving any further than absolutely necessary, and Harry knew all about it.

Growing up with his relatives had taught Harry not to waste his energy on unnecessary movements such as clapping, smiling or crying. These lessons had been taught repeatedly, with liberal use of physical violence, to make sure he would never forget them. He could also tell, even from across the hall, how icy Daphne's expression was, and after seeing her eyes for a brief moment as she looked around the hall, he didn't think there was any word that fit that gaze better, a piercing blue, like the purest of water, had been hardened in to chips of ice to form that look, and he imagined almost every other look she gave. Filled with suspicion and unease, there was no longer any doubt in Harry's mind that she had as many barriers between herself and the rest of the world as she possibly could. This immediately caught attention and his curiosity would not be sated for some time.

The rest of Harry's first true Christmas holidays included extra research, he started investigating pure blood families and traditions, more specifically the Greengrass family. He had learnt from one of the few older Gryffindors still in the castle that Daphne Greengrass was heiress to the Greengrass family, a very wealthy and old family in the wizarding world. As such she was under constant scrutiny, with others just waiting to point out her mistakes. Harry also discovered that in accordance with very old traditions, Daphne would most likely be married off to another old family, in an attempt to raise the standing of her own. When combining these facts, Harry no longer needed to wonder why Daphne seemed a very cold and detached person, but he decided then and there, that the Ice Queen, as Harry had heard her nickname was from a trio of second year Slytherins, was going to thaw, and who better to do that than a hot-headed lion?

END FLASHBACK

Judging by the damp marks on the wall, Daphne had been crying against it for several minutes, before turning away and sliding down to rest in her current position, slightly shaking, knees brought up to her chest with hands wrapped tightly around legs, whether in an attempt to draw comfort or warmth was unknown as well as irrelevant. Slowly, Harry made his way forward, sitting down next to the Slytherin student, which by lack of reaction still seemed unaware of his presence. Very slowly, deliberately making slight contact to make his presence known, Harry's arm moved across Daphne's back and settled across her shoulders. After tensing for several seconds, her body relaxed slightly, and before he could blink Harry had a crying witch in his arms.

Completely unaware of how to handle a lap full of crying twelve year old witch, Harry stayed frozen for several moments before slowly reaching his arms around her, moving one hand to gently tease the knots out of her ruffled hair. Slowly relaxing as the embrace lengthened, Harry leant back against the stone wall of the castle, and with his eyes closed, began to hum a tune he could barely remember from when he was three or four years old, pressing up against the crack of his cupboard door to hear the soothing sounds he assumed were coming from Dudley's room to help him fall asleep. As he continued to hum and run his fingers through the now completely tangle free head of hair below his chin, he felt Daphne completely relax against him, and eventually began to hear a slightly higher version of the tune he was repeating, realising that she had joined him.

It was not long after this that Daphne began to move and hoping not to be hexed when she realized she was sitting on a Gryffindor, Harry slowly opened his eyes, jade meeting icy blue, his curiosity present in hers as well, along with a large amount of calculation.

"Why? Why would you be this nice to me? A Slytherin, and someone you don't even know?" Though curiosity was present, anxiety and accusation were most obvious in her voice.

"You looked lonely." Was the simple response, and as Daphne looked in to his startlingly green eyes, she realised that that was the only reason he cared about, the only reason he could think of for letting her cry all over his robes like a five year old.

"And whilst you were near the top of the list of who it would be nice to have my first hug from, I didn't really expect it to be like this." He said, with a slightly lopsided grin she couldn't help but smile at, until she realized exactly what he had said

"Your first hug? As in, ever?"

"Yes." A whisper was her reply, Harry's eyes now studying the floor next to them.

As he was immediately engulfed in a much stronger, more comforting embrace than the one broken just a few minutes before, Harry felt a warmth in his chest, one he hoped he could make reappear very often and a stinging in his eyes that he knew there was no fighting. Their roles now reversed, Daphne began to hum and run a hand through the perpetually messy hair of the usually so strong seeming lion, now a fragile kitten, that had been the talk of the wizarding world for the past twelve years.


End file.
